The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-11

Mexican, fairly Intelligent and with
enough knowledge to know his rights
He came to ME and asked me to take his
almost impossible case and do what |
could with it. I took it for want of
something to do, and have made many
important discoveries. The Mexican
grants have long ago been confirmed to
the Ybarra family. No record of trans
fers from them appear upon the county
records. Could l but produce those
gamblers and the papers that passed be-
tween as witnesses, l could build up a
strong case. even after all these years."
''Say, young feller," said Monte Sam,
"what did yer say thet greaser's name
war;"
"Jose Maria Antonio Jesus Ybarra." "
"And the land was the San Miguel
rancho, eh"
Eyes, that was its name"
"And he lost it playing monte!"
eyes"
"Well, I guess as how kin tell you
a little about thet."
"Youw excitedly exclaimed, "what
do you know about that?"
easy, youngster, easy; mebbe / knows
all about it and mebbe don't; leastwise
I can remember one night was sittin in
Joe O'Campo's saloon, in Los Angeles, a
dcalin monte, when an old pard of mine
Horse Pistol Dick-we called him thet
cause he ustcr kill men with that weepin,
specially greasers, for grcasers warn't
wuth much in them days nohow. Well,
as I was a sayin, was doin the dealin
and Dick was rustlin ther suckers, when
old Don Jose Maria Antonio Jesus Ybarra
cum in. He was pretty wealthy grcaSer
then, aud we knew we had good thing
on hand. He commenced ter bet at ther
game, and we let him win little just to
hold him. Bymbye he begun ter lose.
and purity soon we had his coin, then we
had got his horse and outfit and finally
he staked his rancho agin few thousands
we had, cause he looked purity full and
we thought we could beat him. We won
the rancho, and Dick drew up bill of
sale for ther place and Joe O'Campo wit
messed it. kinder remember bout the
cuss BLOWN ther top of his head off, but
that happened every day then. Dick and
I busted off North after that. Dick gin
me the dockiment, and purity soon after
that a greaser ripped Dick wide open
with q knife. Dick war drunk at the
time and didn't get no show, so he passed
in his chips and the Dealer up above
cashed EN- for him. I kinder think I've
got that paper yet, cause I had reason to
save number of papers after that. Eff
it'll do yer any good yer kin have it."
"Good!" exclaimed, ';why it's worth
thousands; give it to me, and I'll share
all make with YOU
"Oh, never mind, youngster, old Sam's
got his little claim and he's got huff to
sec him through this world without
that"
With that Sam rose and went to lit
tic box that stood in one corner of the
room. First he took out pick, spade
and rocker. ''See them, youngster;
them's my pardncrs of the old times.
Many an ounce of dust they brung me-"
and he laid them gently down."
Next he fished out an old pair of boots;
"that's another pard of 49, and at last
he drew forth packet of papers. Care
fully he handled them and brought them
to the light, where he stood silent and
still with those letters in his hand, and a
shadow seemed to pass over his face. l
was burning with impatience to examine
the papers, but something in his manner
restrained me. "Youngster," he finally
said, "thesc ore some letters from home
maybe you don't know what that meant
in 40 and 80. I've kept them for many
a year, kept every one, until they didn't
cum eny more, and then I knew the old
folks was dead. Thar's one thar that all
the gold in Californy couldn't buy" and
he selected a faded envelope from the
pack and gazed reverently upon it.
Tell us about it, Sam, urged Harry.
'Lct Homer wait, and spin us yarn"
Sam threw himself upon his side, rested
his head upon his hand and began:
II had cum down from the north to
Los Angeles, just to take hand in the
fun Commodore Stockton was havin'
with the greasers, for he and Kcarney and
q few others was raising Cain down
here and the greasers were purity hot to-
ward 'gringoes, as they called white men
then. Wall, one day they had big JAM
borec on the Plaza.
There was a hull lot of new Americans
in town, a lot of soldiers that had listed
and sarved their time and had been dis
charged-they were all out for lark and
in for good time. noticed one young
chap among 'em who seemed ter have a
s., To- fn Ia CT
in the street a lookin' at their show,
when a big greaser cum along on horse
back; he yelled to the young feller in
Spanish to git out of the road. He says,
'Cuidado, perro,' Qook out, you dog,
and all the greasers commenced to latf.
This young fellcr didn't know no Span
ish, so he stood there, and the grcaser
dug his spurs in the side of his horse and
triedto make him jump over him, but the
hoss couldn't do it; so he brung his front
feet down on that young fcllcr's head and
smashed him into Il Jelly 1 tell you VIC
gringoeS was hot. knocked that greaser
off that hoss with Il shot from my Colts
revolver, and ther balance of thcr boys
cleaned the hull crowd out. then we
picked up that pore young fel!er and took
him into saloon and laid him out. Orc
Of the boys searched his clothes and found
this letter.
'''Hello, SAM he says. this here
chaps got the same name as yer
II took the letter and looked at it.
Sure nuff, it sed, "Charles Sawyer, New
Orleans I took it, and read it, and
here's what it said:
.BLooMINGDALE, \. H., Jan. 6, 1s4s,
MY DEAR SoN-I write this letter to you,
hoping it will reach you at New Orleans. My
dear dear boy may God keen and watch over